One million dollars for Curtis Park! Imagine, a square kilometre of 'soft fall'. I reckon Jane and William Curtis would be dismayed. All that for the little park down by the creek with trees and grass and swings and a sculpture in a corner. In all William's 30 years as an alderman and several times mayor to 1934 never was there such bounty in the council treasury. In 1919 Council was given an equivalent $22 500 from the Commonwealth, a repatriation grant for out of work soldiers back from the Great War to plant trees on Dumaresq creek banks. Jane, president of the Relief Society, was pleased (she said so in the Express) with a gift of dripping in 1931 during the economic depression that was distributed among '17 needy families'. Both would regard such government largesse for this park extravagant and wasteful. To me, a descendant of Jane and William, this looks like those prodigal Sydney projects, destroying perfectly good football stadiums and rebuilding them.

Letter to the editor: Armidale Curtis Park a waste of funding

One million dollars for Curtis Park! Imagine, a square kilometre of 'soft fall'.

I reckon Jane and William Curtis would be dismayed. All that for the little park down by the creek with trees and grass and swings and a sculpture in a corner.

In all William's 30 years as an alderman and several times mayor to 1934 never was there such bounty in the council treasury.

In 1919 Council was given an equivalent $22 500 from the Commonwealth, a repatriation grant for out of work soldiers back from the Great War to plant trees on Dumaresq creek banks. Jane, president of the Relief Society, was pleased (she said so in the Express) with a gift of dripping in 1931 during the economic depression that was distributed among '17 needy families'.

Both would regard such government largesse for this park extravagant and wasteful.

To me, a descendant of Jane and William, this looks like those prodigal Sydney projects, destroying perfectly good football stadiums and rebuilding them.